How to Cut In Walls when Painting

Learn how to cut in walls when painting from Brushed Interiors founder David Sartori in this Howcast video.

Transcript

How to do cut-in, a very important part of painting.

I've got my 1-1/2 inch brush, personal preference. You'll see a lot of painters with a 2 inch or a 3 inch, but I like to have total control.

Now go ahead and buy something like this at Home Depot for a couple bucks. This is much better and much better balance for painting and cutting in your lines.

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All right. You don't need to fill it up too much either. Wipe off your paint, and we're ready to cut.

We've got an intricate detailing here in the ceiling and again, this is an old building, it's got a lot of character. This wasn't fully restored or skim coated, so this is kind of a rough edge.

I'm going to cut my line and I'm going to push the paint up just to get started. And I'm going to go a little bit pressurized up into the ceiling so my line, if anything, overlaps into the ceiling a little bit.

I opted to do this one by hand. You could put blue tape, like a delicate tape for making a cut line, but it's such a rough surface and it's got a lot of character so I just want to cut it by hand, and then use the corner of my brush to get this line. And then pull it down and then fill it in.

You get good at this and you're going to be addicted. You're going to be painting everybody's house.

Putting a little pressure up into the ceiling. I'm just carefully dabbing a little paint here to bring it around this corner. And now the same procedure. Nice and slow. And I'll just carry that on forward around the room. And I'll come back and take a close look at it once it's dry. Probably put a second coat up there, also, on the cut-in. But it's a nice line. It's a nice, sharp line.

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So there you have it. Cut in is not a mystery. It takes patience, but again, it takes an artistic touch and you can develop that.